Reinventing Roleplaying Games

[mythusmage]

Your way would drastically shrink the size of the hobby community because the people that would want to get into your brand of hobby already have far more viable and established outlets. The writers have a score of different publishing channels while the actors have the theater and cinema- and the directors have their niche through that part of the culture. There is no way that you'd get nearly enough of those folks to come into the hobby to replace the gamers that you'd drive away if you got your way. This is fiscal and subcultural suicide, and most of us--be we just common gamers or someone more involved in the hobby (publishers, retailers, etc.)--recognize that to be true. The gamers always were, are now and ever shall they be where it's it.

Would it now? Are the gamers the be-all and end-all of the hobby? Are we limited to one small segment of the population?

I submit the reason why more don't take up the hobby is because we insist on making it, in the long run, uninviting. I submit that RPGs are trying to be something they're not, games.

Now, how do you know there aren't enough people out there to replace the current base? How do you know that all, or even a majority, of the current base would abandon roleplaying, when you don't know <i>how</i> I propose to change the hobby?

 

[mythusmage]

Is there a feat I can take to increase that 8 to something substantial? Or preferably a combination of Prestige Classes?

-Hyp.

There's only two remedies to that. One, whack 'em harder. Two, hit where he aint so protected.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

I submit the reason why more don't take up the hobby is because we insist on making it, in the long run, uninviting. I submit that RPGs are trying to be something they're not, games.

Now, how do you know there aren't enough people out there to replace the current base? How do you know that all, or even a majority, of the current base would abandon roleplaying, when you don't know <i>how</i> I propose to change the hobby?

Actually, I agree with the uninviting part. It's a darn lot of work to get started, and a lot more work to get to a place where I feel that I'm capable of playing well with others (3 failed campaigns in the last 4 years). And it's a darn lot of work to keep up with, and it's a darn lot of work to get someone ready to go.

Unfortunately, this far the only change I've seen is cosmetic. And that sucks because I really, really want to see something that works on a wider level and is easier to accept.

 

[mythusmage]

and it seems that the rest of us are in agreement that they would not.

look, if making RPGs more like play-acting would result in a larger audience -- it would have already happened.

it's been tried, and those RPGs never did as well as the ones that were, you know, games.

They were still games. They tried putting the emphasis on other areas, as games. I am proposing that we rethink the entire game thing.

That is, make the hobby, as a hobby, more inviting to prospective participants, to potential players if you must, and so create a larger customer base. Which would make 2nd, 3rd, and even marginal tier efforts more worthwhile.

D&D® is what I intend to reinvent, D&D® and other RPGs in its wake. To bring more participants into the hobby and so broadening its audience and the audience for other roleplaying guides. Because D&D® is the one people think of when the roleplaying hobby is mentioned.

My goal is to get people in the hobby to rethink what they do. To encourage those willing to listen to look at the hobby in a new way, and so make it more accessible to the general public.

Am I disappointed it D&D®? Damn right. It's like using a turbine engine to power an old biplane. I say we use it for a new jet aircraft and see what comes of it.

 

[mythusmage]

Actually, I agree with the uninviting part. It's a darn lot of work to get started, and a lot more work to get to a place where I feel that I'm capable of playing well with others (3 failed campaigns in the last 4 years). And it's a darn lot of work to keep up with, and it's a darn lot of work to get someone ready to go.

Unfortunately, this far the only change I've seen is cosmetic. And that sucks because I really, really want to see something that works on a wider level and is easier to accept.

Making it easier to get into would certainly help. Maybe getting people to think of their characters as people would help. Maybe re-purposing the rules, the mechanics would help as well.

Dang, this is a puzzlement. I'm going to have to think about this some more.

 

[Hypersmurf]

There's only two remedies to that. One, whack 'em harder. Two, hit where he aint so protected.

Ohhhh! I get it.

An RPH is an RPG with Armor-as-DR and Called Shots.

-Hyp.

 

[Crothian]

Each game would then become not a game, but a set of instructions for roleplaying in a particular setting or set of settings. They would no longer be games per se but instructions, guidelines, bibles if you would, for assuming a role in an imaginary world.

A Rose by any other name.....

Renaming the hobby will do nothing; its totally cosmetic. :\

 

[Crothian]

Actually it's a lot like RPGs, only instead of saying "I did 8 points to the ogre." you say things like, "With a mighty blow to his upper (left) thigh I lay a smackdown of 8 points! Does it get through his armor?"

so we are becoming wrestlers? don't they "lay the smackdown"? I've never heard anyone else say that, and I'm sure if I did I'd laugh at them.

 

[Crothian]

Why not? Because in my considered opinion such as D&D®, Vampire®, and the rest could have a larger audience, as hobbies.

I hate to break it to you, but they are hobbies now.

 

[mythusmage]

Ohhhh! I get it.

An RPH is an RPG with Armor-as-DR and Called Shots.

-Hyp.

Actually, RPH is what you call the hobby as a whole. The roleplaying hobby. Each 'bible' would be known as a roleplaying guide (RPG). Such as the D&D® RPG. Or roleplaying guide to the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons®

And 'called shots' for dramatic effect. Actor's choice, and he gets to live with the consequences.